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Macbook Pro Retina (Late 2013) HDMI weird problem driving me crazy

V

villur

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Oct 5, 2014
9
0
tl;dr HDMI keeps bugging out, green screen and messed up colors

Just recently (about 3 weeks ago) I got a new macbook pro (late 2013), retina.

For the past few days I have tried to hook it up with my TV to watch movies, but there's a very strange issue that occours. Let me explain in detail:

1. I connect my laptop and TV via HDMI, everything works fine, i get audio and video, i can mirror or use it as an external display.
2. I load up a movie with VLC (thus far i've only tested .mkv and .mp4 files) , i go fullscreen, and i press play. Again, everything works as expected.
3. After about 5-10 minutes (It varies from time to time) The TV screen flashes green and all the colors get very messed up, seems like some color(s) are missing and it stays that way. Oh and it only happens on the TV, not the laptop itself. Seems that the display driver or something crashes/ messes up the video player and then it starts displaying wrong colors

Picture here: http://i.imgur.com/NWZjc8h.jpg

When i replug the HDMI cable the colors go back to normal and everything is as it should, and then again, after about 5-10 minutes it does it again, and again, and again...

Here is what I have tried:
*Different media players: Ive tried VLC, XMBC and MplayerX
*Different encoders/codecs in VLC
*Tried out different color profiles for both the laptop and TV, different resolutions and etc, every different combination with the display settings.
*Different cables and both thunderbolt and HDMI port, exactly the same results
*Reinstalled OS X(Not a complete format tho)

I don't think its the TV or the cables, or the movie(i've tried many different ones) since my fathers old 2011 macbook pro works perfect with the same cables and tv settings. He uses VLC too

So here i am, wondering if its a problem with my hardware or some stupid setting i've missed. Imagine watching a movie, and pausing it every 10 minutes to go and replug the cable and resume the movie, its absurd and driving me crazy.

Almost forgot to mention my laptops specs:
Im running OS X ver 10.9.5
i5 2.6GHz
8 GB of ram
13"

tl;dr HDMI keeps bugging out, green screen and messed up colors
 
Last edited:
MacForScience said:
Have you tried a different HDMI cable?

Have you tried a different HDMI adapter?
Cheers
Click to expand...
Did you you even read my post :D? maybe i didn't make it clear enough, but yes i tried different HDMI cables, and i only have 1 HDMI to thunderbolt adapter but even that works fine with other devices.
 
Last edited:
3 days and nobody has a clue? I don't even know how to test what is causing it (to figure out what is causing the green screen, can i generate some logs with something?) since im pretty much new to macs
 
Does the issue only occur when playing movies? Does the TV image get distorted with just normal use of the machine after 10-15 minutes of usage? Since it is a 13" model there is only the integrated graphics so it would have nothing to do with graphic switching between cards like a 15" might do. If it happens with multiple cables and those cables work with other units then it most likely is an issue with the hardware. Not sure what would be causing it but I would look at getting the unit exchanged.
 
msevild said:
Does the issue only occur when playing movies? Does the TV image get distorted with just normal use of the machine after 10-15 minutes of usage? Since it is a 13" model there is only the integrated graphics so it would have nothing to do with graphic switching between cards like a 15" might do. If it happens with multiple cables and those cables work with other units then it most likely is an issue with the hardware. Not sure what would be causing it but I would look at getting the unit exchanged.
Click to expand...

I haven't really tested with normal use, or youtube for example.
But I tried windows7 with bootcamp, and after some 4-5h of testing playback on windows, it seems to work fine there. Im going to try a full format in the weekend to see if it changes anything, if not I'm out of options since I've pretty much tried everything I have thought of.

Another forum suggested wiring my laptop with my fathers and using both as target disks for some tests, but i don't have a thunderbolt cable atm and I'm not sure what more would it tell us.
 
Ok, so i did a full format and installed Yosemite, still the same problem, however i've noticed one thing, its that when the colors get messed up, they sometimes go back to normal after some random time again, sometimes several seconds, sometimes a few to several minutes.

Also happens with twitch streams

Should i go get it replaced?
 
Last edited:
msevild said:
Does the issue only occur when playing movies? Does the TV image get distorted with just normal use of the machine after 10-15 minutes of usage? Since it is a 13" model there is only the integrated graphics so it would have nothing to do with graphic switching between cards like a 15" might do. If it happens with multiple cables and those cables work with other units then it most likely is an issue with the hardware. Not sure what would be causing it but I would look at getting the unit exchanged.
Click to expand...
Hi, I'm experiencing the same issue on my macbook retina late 2013. Have you managed do solve it? Tanks.
 
villur said:
tl;dr HDMI keeps bugging out, green screen and messed up colors

Just recently (about 3 weeks ago) I got a new macbook pro (late 2013), retina.

For the past few days I have tried to hook it up with my TV to watch movies, but there's a very strange issue that occours. Let me explain in detail:

1. I connect my laptop and TV via HDMI, everything works fine, i get audio and video, i can mirror or use it as an external display.
2. I load up a movie with VLC (thus far i've only tested .mkv and .mp4 files) , i go fullscreen, and i press play. Again, everything works as expected.
3. After about 5-10 minutes (It varies from time to time) The TV screen flashes green and all the colors get very messed up, seems like some color(s) are missing and it stays that way. Oh and it only happens on the TV, not the laptop itself. Seems that the display driver or something crashes/ messes up the video player and then it starts displaying wrong colors

Picture here:
https://imgur.com/NWZjc8h

When i replug the HDMI cable the colors go back to normal and everything is as it should, and then again, after about 5-10 minutes it does it again, and again, and again...

Here is what I have tried:
*Different media players: Ive tried VLC, XMBC and MplayerX
*Different encoders/codecs in VLC
*Tried out different color profiles for both the laptop and TV, different resolutions and etc, every different combination with the display settings.
*Different cables and both thunderbolt and HDMI port, exactly the same results
*Reinstalled OS X(Not a complete format tho)

I don't think its the TV or the cables, or the movie(i've tried many different ones) since my fathers old 2011 macbook pro works perfect with the same cables and tv settings. He uses VLC too

So here i am, wondering if its a problem with my hardware or some stupid setting i've missed. Imagine watching a movie, and pausing it every 10 minutes to go and replug the cable and resume the movie, its absurd and driving me crazy.

Almost forgot to mention my laptops specs:
Im running OS X ver 10.9.5
i5 2.6GHz
8 GB of ram
13"

tl;dr HDMI keeps bugging out, green screen and messed up colors
Click to expand...
Hi, I'm experiencing the same issue on my macbook retina late 2013. Have you managed do solve it? Tanks.
 
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